I heard it through the grape vine
Posted: 02 December '09 by Niall
Direct Wine Shipments
There are times when I think that there is simply nothing to do in Belfast and then something new presents itself..
On Friday 13th of November I went along to the “Walkabout Wine Tasting” at Direct Wine Shipments accompanied by Linda, one of the Chilli and Chocolate members (Kelly was working and very distraught at missing the night). I only discovered that DWS was open to the public and held these sorts of events quite recently – apparently these evenings have been going on for some time, so why had I never heard of these wine-tastings before? Who knows, but I was determined to make up for lost time.
And what a fantastic night it turned out to be! At £10 a ticket the event certainly didn’t break the bank and I’m happy to report that it was more than value for money – which rarely seems to be the case where events in Belfast are concerned.
We were greeted at reception by the event staff and taken into the tasting room armed with the tasting notes, a map showing the layout of the wines, and a glass of chilled prosecco. There were 26 wines in all, from Old World to New World, red to white – and even a toffee-sweet Sauterne – a fantastic mix of flavours and aromas. The wines at DWS are from smaller, artisan producers, the vast majority of which you won’t have seen in the bigger off-licences and online stores – the sorts of people that produce wine because they love it, and have been making wine for generations. My particular favourites were the Chateau L’Escart Prestige 2007 (a delicious and darkly concentrated Bordeaux Superieur, with red berries, prunes, and cherries on the nose and a mouth-watering long finish) and the Crisita Collection Vacqueyras 2007 (a powerful but silky-smooth wine from the Rhone Valley that has plenty of ripe dark fruit). There were also some carafes of chilled water and nibbles on hand (cheese, focaccia, and some fantastic delicious Castilian olive oil) to help clear your palate between wines.
The fact that the tickets were only £10 did mean that there was a good mix of people, from those that clearly knew their wine to those just starting on the path to enlightenment, all of which made the event far less formal than you might have previously imagined. It should be said that the staff were also fantastic – visiting wine-tastings and dedicated wine stores can be a bit unnerving, but the event staff were very approachable, happily mingling and casually chatting about the wines on show, which clearly put everyone at ease.
The “walkabout” ran from 4.30pm to 7.30pm, with people coming and going when they needed to. We made in down by about 6pm, but it was still more than enough time to try all of the wines and chat to some of the other lucky attendees. I say “lucky” because the wine-tasting was limited to 100 participants, and the tickets were sold out before the night of the tasting. Infact, that night we heard that there is another wine-tasting planned for Saturday 5th December, “The Wines of Christmas”, but all of the tickets had already been snapped up!
Another big “plus” from the evening was that the wines at the tasting were all reduced – the Cristia Vacqueyras down from £13.50 to £11.48, for example – making your new favourite wine that much more appealing.
Our verdict
We had a great night out at Direct Wine Shipments: we met some nice people, tried some superb wines (several of which have already made an appearance in our wine cellar), learned more about some producers and wines that we hadn’t come across before, and made some savings on buying our favourite bottles.
You should give these wine-tastings a go – a “different” night out in Belfast – highly recommended.
Other information
You can find the DWS store at:
Direct Wine Shipments
5-7 Corporation Square,
Belfast
BT1 3AJ
T: 028 9050 8000
E: shop@directwine.co.uk
W: www.directwine.co.uk
You can also find DWS on Google Maps.
There are some other events that you might be interested in:
- Thursday 3rd December: Masterchef Dinner at Jeffers Bar & Grill. You can read more about this event
- Wednesday 10th February 2010: Eldredge Vineyards Wine Tasting & Supper at 8pm – £25. You can read more about this event
Categories: News
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£25 Discount Voucher from Naked Wines
Posted: 29 July '09 by Kelly
The good people at Naked Wines have been kind enough to give our readers a £25 discount voucher – and who were we to argue!
We’ve been members of Naked Wines since the site started. They’re almost like a virtual co-operative – they stock wines from smaller producers, typically ones that you just wouldn’t see in the larger wine stores or off-licences, and generally have very reasonable pricing. So when they offered our readers a discount we jumped at the chance.
The discount voucher really is great value – especially when we combined it with the “Naked Angel” deal which allowed us to get 6 bottles of wine on which we only paid the postage, and then used the voucher to get £25 off the total cost of our order after adding another 6 bottles to our basket. Twelve bottles of wine duly arrived at our door (including a bottle of the excellent Moutard champagne) and cost us just over £50.
Naked Wines definitely gets a big “thumbs up” from both Niall and myself.
To use the voucher, just follow the link: http://www.nakedwines.com/chillichocolate.
The terms and conditions are:
- Valid against any 12 bottle order of £64.99 or more
- Excluding delivery £4.99 – Next working day
- Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer
- Customers must be over 18 to buy alcohol
- Customers can bespoke their own order or buy premixed cases
- The voucher can also be used towards the Naked Angels introductory offer
- Full details available on the Naked Wines website
We hope you all enjoy the voucher – and remember to keep us posted about the wine you buy!
Categories: Promotions > Wine Reviews
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C’mon, lets get Naked!
Posted: 23 July '09 by Niall
Visit Naked Wines at www.nakedwines.co.uk
I thought that would grab your attention!
I’ve been a member of a few wine clubs, but the most recent is the best – www.nakedwines.com.
The whole premise of the site is that it’s there to help small producers sell to buyers in the UK – wines that you would normally never see on the shelves of your local off-licence, a good thing in itself.
While you can buy cases or half-cases with no further interaction with the producers, you can become a “naked angel” for a particular winemaker, or an “archangel” for the website.
Becoming a “naked angel” (yes, they are stretching the whole “naked” motif here!) means that you agree to pay £5 per month to the producer, thereby guaranteeing sales and helping the producer keep the costs of production down – in return for which you get 6 bottles of their wine for the postage alone!
An archangel agrees to pay £20 or more to the site every month which can be stored and redeemed at any stage, for which you’ll receive a discount on any case you buy.
Added to this there are all the usual social networking features: chat to the producers and other customers, organise wine-tastings, rate wines, and apply to become a wine taster (I’m fairly sure that everyone tries to do this – but it’s worth a go).
Why not try Naked Wines at www.nakedwines.com today – and look out for the Bacchanalian Belfast group!
Categories: Wine Reviews
